Held a Koala and pet a Kangaroo

So, got up nice and early this morning and went to breakfast. Nothing exciting, just some toast and peanut butter. Had the option for some vegimite but decided it was not time yet. We had our second session for how we are going to be living in Australia rather than traveling here... so that was a little depressing. But after that we went out on this rainforestation thing which was pretty cool. I hung out with some kangaroos and even got to hold a koala, i also had a snake draped around my neck... but that is no where near as cool as the other two. And i would love to put up some pictures to show you all but at the moment i am not able to use my computer and the ones i am using do not allow me to upload pictures from external drives... damn you internet cafes!!! We took a ride in this boat called a duck or something. it was an amphibious vehicle. so- half of it was on land and the other half on the water. mainly looking at some crazy plants and what not. I am just about to go learn how to play cricket. so im pretty pumped about that. so for now, you all will have to do with this short little post and wait until i have another adventure or am able to upload photos.

Sorry it took so long

Sorry i have not posted in a while, I have just been trying to enjoy every bit of japan that i can.... and i have found that computers have no place in that when you want to walk around a beautiful city like Tokyo! Anyways, did a lot of fun stuff since my last post. I went to dinner with Mari's friends from her old school. We went to a place where you cooked your food on a hot griddle right in front of you, kind of like hibachi places, except you do the cooking. so that was really cool. I also spent a day with Nita-san, who works for Ferno Japan, we went to Mt. Fuji and took a scenic boat right around a beautiful lake. then we drove up a mountain a little bit and we bought eggs that were black... they turn black when they are hard boiled in the hot springs on this mountain. In my opinion... they were better than normal hard boiled eggs, but i digress. We also saw a shrine and a temple (Mari told me the difference but i cant remember what it is). Those two were pretty cool, we threw some money at Buddha, waved smoke over our head, and go a fortune out of a drawer.
On my last day, mari and i went and did these photo booth things that are at like carnivals and what not in the states... but they are HUGE in japan. Huge as in, it is sunday and we have to wait in line to do these picture things. Then we went to the busiest intersection in the world, the one they drift through in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift"... sooooooo cool, and to top it off, i saw a Nissan GTR go through the intersection.
i then had to say goodbye to that lovely girlfriend of mine and make my way onto a 9 hour flight. The plane was smaller than the first flight i took... so that made sleeping impossible seeing as my knees were in my chest and the back of the seat in front of me was in my face. But i survived to make my connection which was delayed. And i finally landed in Cairns, Australia, checked into my hotel (only $20 a night... awesome!) and i am just about to go grab a bite to eat. so you all enjoy your day because i sure as hell am enjoying the 80 degree sunny with a slight breeze Australian weather.

I wore a big robe

SOOOO... two days ago was not really all that exciting... just went to a couple cities that i can not pronounce the names of, shopped around a little bit. Found out an important fact... i am in fact too large for this country. Everything they have is just too small for me... if you are larger than an average size American... you are screwed. But I am not all that worried. The more exciting day was yesterday. First we took this awesome monorail to another city i can not pronounce. When we got there we went to this amazing Toyota show room. It had a bunch of Lexus and Toyota cars obviously... but it had past cars, present cars, and prototype future cars. I saw my dream car there, the Lexus LFA (pictured above). So that was a nice little treat to have. After the Toyota show room thing we went to an Onsen... which is a big bath house. You go into this big temple thing and take off your shoes and they give you this big robe thing which you change into. Once in your big robe, you go into basically a mini city within this temple building. There are shops, restaurants, and massage parlors. It was awesome. Mari and I got a massage, I did a doctor fish bath, which is when you put your feet into water with a bunch of fish in it and the fish eat the dead skin off of your feet... it was a really cool feeling but still kind of weird. Then we went into the bath rooms. You go into this huge room completely naked, sit on this little stool and bathe yourself with soap and all. then you wander around and sit in different mineral baths that are different temperatures and what not. It was so relaxing. I sat in the sauna and sweated for a little bit, went in the outdoor baths and finished with my favorite bath in the place... the cold water bath which was about 18 degrees Celsius. After our baths we had dinner at one of the restaurants within the onsen. And i will tell you what... the concept of a mixed drink is lost on these people, but no worries, we worked through it. By the time we left the onsen it was 10:30 and time to head home. I was so relaxed though. If you ever have a chance to go to an onsen in Japan i highly recommend you get over your fear of nudity and go to one. It is so relaxing and and quite an experience.

oh and feel free to post comments with questions or anything, i will gladly answer

Akihabara

Quite the day yesterday. Went to the Imperial Palace and wandered the gardens. It was quite hot though. And there were a lot of old people moving verrry slowly. After the Palace, Mari and I went to the Sony store, which is an 8 story building that has a whole bunch of Sony stuff in it. From old tech, to current tech, to future tech. On the top floor they had a 200 inch 3D tv that you could watch clips of the current world cup on. that was really cool... but of course we were not allowed to take pictures, so I have nothing to show for it. We also went to a little Nissan show room that only had the Nissan Leaf, but was cool none the less. Then we went to Akihabara, which is the technology district. So I was in heaven. I just wandered in and out of all these stores with 7, 8, 9 floors of pure tech. It was crazy. The main reason we went though is because my camera broke halfway through the day... so that was sad news. Thankfully though, I found a new camera in Akihabara. 14.1 megapixel, 5x digital zoom... oh and did i mention it was about $75 cheaper than what i would have paid back home. so now i will have really good pictures to post up.
Mari and I made our way back to my hotel and got some dinner. I dont remember what exactly they are called... but basically they are octopus balls. Bits of octopus, some lettuce, and breading that is fried then topped with Japanese mayo, fish flakes, sea weed, and sometimes cheese. Needless to say, they were fantastic.
Well, i believe that is all, going to grab some breakfast now and start the day.

First Night in Japan

14 hours of flying, 8 hours of sleep, and 3 movies later i touched down in Tokyo. Most of yesterday was a blur seeing as jet lag tried to claim my night (which i would not allow). Got off the plane, claimed my bags, worked my way through security, customs, and immigration and onto a train to my hotel. i have never ridden more public transportation in my life. It was one train after another after another. Once i got to the hotel mari and i went to get something to eat... sushi of course, and i forgot to take pictures of the meal, so sorry about that. then we met up with some of her friends and went out to a club for a while. Around 1:30 i grabbed a taxi home and wandered up to bed finally after a long day.
Just an FYI...
1) commercials over here are the best thing ever
2) The toilets are CRAZY!! (picture to follow)
3) Girls really do dress up in little princess outfits and fairy outfits like in the movies

The night preceding the leave

Current time... 3:29 am June 18, 2010 and in about an hour I will be driving to the airport for my flight to Tokyo. Now I know that this is not in Australia... but I am going to see Mari. Finished packing... kind of, just have my carry on to finish up, and I am on my way. I have a 2 hour flight over to New Jersey, then I have a 14 hour flight over the top of the earth to Japan arriving Saturday at 2 pm... long day of flying, but going to see Mari, so it will be worth it. Any ways... I will of course start taking pictures and upload them as soon as I can. kk believe that is all.